Day 228. Jeremiah 30-31

This section of the Book of Jeremiah is sometimes called "The Book of Comfort," and it is so radically different from the rest of Jeremiah's oracles that scholars have speculated that it belongs to the work of another prophet anxious to introduce a note of hope. Whoever the author, the "Book of Comfort" does provide a relief from the drumbeat of doom that has marked prophet's writing here-to-fore.
Chapter 30 gives assurance that beyond of despondence of exile there will be a return to the Land of Promise and a restoration of the Davidic monarchy. In his good time, the LORD "will break the yoke off [Israel's] neck, and strangers shall no more make a servant of him." In their own land the people "shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom [the LORD] will raise up for them" (30:8-9). In the meantime the people are told not to fear or be uneasy about the future—"I am with you, says the LORD, to save you" (30:11). He will not crush the people with unjust retribution; the LORD is just and his punishments are proportionate. "Because your guilt is great, because your sins are so numerous," he says, "I have done these things to you" (30:15)—not from spite or cruelty. In the Bible sin is often seen as a disease, of which physical illness is a symptom. Sin has made Israel sick; some will indeed die, but the remnant
will recover--"I will restore your health to you, and your wounds I will heal," says the LORD (30:17).
The LORD's relationship to Israel is not dependent on their faithfulness, but upon his unconditional promise--"I have loved you with an everlasting love," says the LORD (31:3). History cannot alter that promise, nor can circumstances cancel it. Therefore, God will bring back his scattered people and reestablish them in the land, not only from Babylon, but from the places where Ephraim—the northern kingdom--has been scattered. The LORD, acting as their next of kin, will ransom and redeem them—buy them back from debt and slavery and bring them home (31:11). They shall be once more a single kingdom, ruled by a Davidic king and reunited--"they shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion" (31:12). Therefore the people are called upon to "consider well the highway, the road by which you went" in order that they find their way back "to these [their] cities" (31:21). The land shall be repopulated and prosperous, restored and transformed
by the "new thing" that the LORD will create (31:22). The prophet sees all this in a dream—"I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me" (31:26).
But the greatest change in this new creation will be in God's way of dealing with the people. In that coming day there shall be an end of inherited guilt. Each individual person shall be responsible for his or her own sins, not the sins of parents and grandparents (31:30). The weight of the past will be lifted. Furthermore, the LORD will "make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah" (31:31). This will not be like the previous covenant made at Sinai—which they broke. This new covenant will be based upon inward knowledge of the Law—God "will write it on their hearts" (31:33). The people's obedience will be spontaneous and instinctual, not grudging, based not upon self-interest but upon knowledge of the LORD—upon an intimate acquaintance based on love.
We Christians see this new covenant established through God's unconditional love revealed through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His Holy Spirit establishes in us an immediate relationship with the LORD which transcends commandments and laws. In that intimate and loving relationship, God indeed lifts the weight of the past once and for all—"I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more" (31:34), says the LORD. God utterly wipes away all memory of sins committed or guilt inherited for the sake of Jesus Christ.
In that new world, Jeremiah prophesies, there will be no more clean and unclean, no more profane and holy. The boundaries of Jerusalem will be extended to include "the whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes" where pagan sacrifices had been performed. "All that shall be sacred to the LORD" (31:40), says the prophet—the boundaries of the sacred will be extended to include every place that is now cursed and unclean because of sin and disobedience.
We might say that since the cross of Jesus Christ has been planted in it, the whole earth is holy.